I've assembled as many interesting
weather facts as I can to make this world weather trivia page. Obviously
I didn't know all these facts off the top of my head. Some I discovered
myself, but the I had to hunt around for the vast majority. The internet
was, needless to say, a particulary handy source, especially regarding
American weather. Another good source proved to be old weather periodicals,
such as The Meteorological Magazine which seemed much more
intent on facts and figures than research. If you scroll to the bottom
of this page you'll find a list of sources. Incidentally, if any of these
facts turn out to be wrong, or records quoted get broken please
and let me know. Thanks.

Feb 11916 Seattle’s greatest 24
hour snowfall; 54.6cm snow falls. The storm that caused this snowfall persisted
for 3 days dumping a total of 82.6cm snow on the city causing the dome
of the cathedral to collapse under the weight of the snow. 71951 An ice storm extending
from Texas to Pennsylvania produces glaze up to 10cm thick, kills 25 people
and leaves another 500 seriously injured. Tennessee is worst hit. 71953 Severe flooding over
parts of the Netherlands and eastern and south-eastern England. Winds reach
125mph at Aberdeen, Scotland, 300 are killed by flooding in eastern and
southeastern England whilst a storm surge up to 4m high breaches coastal
defences in the Netherlands leaving one sixth of the country underwater.
71968 The Australian capital
Canberra records its hottest day on record as highs peak at 42.2C. 131978 Malaysia's coldest night
on record; lows drop to 7.8C at Cameron Highlands.1985 Colorado's coldest night
on record; lows at Maybell drop down to -51.7C. It's also the coldest night
on record in Utah where lows drop down to -56.1C in Peter's Sink. 91994 New Mexico's coldest
night on record; lows drop to -45.6C at Gavilan. 9

Feb 21893 906.8mm rain falls in
24 hours at Beerwah, Quuewnsland, Australia. 231996 Minnesota registers its
coldest night on record as lows in Tower drop down to -51.1C. 9

Feb 31917 Downtown Miami records
its coldest weather since records began in 1911 as temperatures drop to
-3C. 191947 Canada and North America's
coldest night on record; lows drop to -63.0C at Snag in the Yukon.1963 The USA's hottest February
day on record; highs reach 41C at Montezuma, Arizona. 191996 Iowa's joint coldest
night on record; lows drop to -43.9C at Elkader. 9

Feb 42002 Between 1 and 4 February
Jakarta suffers its worst floods for decades. At least 67 are killed and
330,000 are made homeless. As if that's not enough, thousands more homes
were then flooded in other waves of flooding on February 14th and 22nd.
22003 The fantastically named
northern Dutch town of Sexbierum (sadly it’s name has nothing to do with
sex or beer!!) was hit by a tornado which caused millions of euros damage
greenhouses containing peppers and cucumbers. Two people also received
cuts to their hands and heads.

Feb 51887 San Francisco's greatest
snowstorm was on the 4th and 5th when 9cm snow fell. In the hills in the
western section of the city as much as 18cm snow fell. 191924 A storm of Gibraltar
covers the summit of The Rock with hail colouring it white. Contemporary
reports indicated that the top of the Rock of Gibraltar had not been white
since at least 1874. 231963 Madrid, Spain's coldest
night on record; lows drop to -14.8C. 101996 Rhode Island's coldest
night on record; lows drop to -31.7C at Greene. 9

Feb 71892 Asia, and the former
Soviet Union's, joint coldest night on record. Lows drop to -69.8C at Verhoyansk
in Siberia. 131973 New Zealand's hottest
day on record. On the South Island temperatures reached 42.4C at Jordan
and Rangoria whilst on the North Island temperatures peaked at 39.2C in
Ruatoria.

Feb 111895 The UK's joint coldest
night on record and the coldest February night on record; temperatures
drop to a low of -27.2C at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in Scotland.1921 Very unsettled over Gibraltar;
on the 10th 51mm rain falls in 24 hours and on the 11th 102mm falls in
24 hours, this time accommpanied by occasional thunder and, in the evening,
gales. 231929 Austria's coldest night
on record; lows drop to -36.6C at Zwettl.1935 Africa records its coldest
night on record when lows at Ifrane in Morrocco drop down to -23.9C. 131956 Barcelona's coldest night
on record. Lows dropped to -10.0C. 101970 New Hampshire registers
its record maximum 24 hour precipitation as 263.7mm rain falls at Mount
Washington. 111999 Canada registers its
record maximum 24 hour snowfall as 145.0cm snow falls at Tahtsa Lake, British
Columbia.

Feb 121899 Nebraska's coldest night
on record; lows drop to -43.9C at Camp Clarke. 91929 Germany's coldest night
on record; lows drop to -37.8C at Hüll.1958 It snows over northern
Florida and the gulf coast. Snow falls over most of northern Florida, including
a record 7cm at state capital Tallahassee. A ship also reports heavy snow
25 miles south of the Alabama coast. 7

Feb 131899 The Great Arctic Outbreak
in Florida. This is Florida's most widespread heavy snowfall on record.
Snow flurries were observed as far south as the Fort Myers - Fort Pierce
line (which runs just north of Lake Ocheekobee) and in the Florida panhandle
close to 8cm snow fell in some places. Temperatures also dropped to -19C
in Tallahassee, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Florida. It was
also Louisiana's coldest night on record; here lows dropped to -26.7C in
Minden. Find out more about this cold snap at this
link.1905 Arkansas' coldest night
on record; lows at Pond drop down to -33.9C. It's also the coldest night
on record in Missouri and Kansas where lows drop to -40.0C in Warsaw (Missouri)
and Lebanon (Kansas). 91958 Tallahassee's deepest
snowfall on record. Close to 8cm snow fell in a five hour spell during
the early hours of the 13th.1998 The UK records its mildest
February day on record when highs reach 19.7C at Greenwich, London.

Feb 141899 Snow has fallen along
the coastal bend of Texas on just a handful of occasions since the American
Civil War in the 1860's/70's. All of these occasions were before 1900.
One such occasion was the 14th in 1899 when 8cm snow fell at Brownsville,
Texas, almost the furthest south in the USA that snow has been observed.
Since then snow has fallen a few times at Brownsville, but hasn't settled
on the ground. 192004 Temperatures reach 44.3C
in Adelaide during a heatwave which saw the city's longest spell of maximum
temperatures above 30C on consecutive days on record. This is the hottest
February day on record here, and the 3rd hottest day recorded here. 24

Feb 151895 A snowstorm on the 14th-15th
dumps 20.8cm snow on New Orleans, the greatest snowstorm on record here.
Meanwhile, in Texas 39cm fell at Galveston and 51cm fell at Houston. 191936 North Dakota's coldest
night on record; lows drop to -51.1C at Parshall. 9

Feb 161925 The UK's deepest single
day snowfall below 300m. Around 180cm snow falls in 15 hours on the south-eastern
fringe of Dartmoor. 151943 Connecticut's coldest
night on record; lows at Falls Village drop down to -35.6C. 91966 New Zealand's wettest
60 minutes on record; 107mm rain falls in just one hour at Whenuapai. 122004 South Australia recorded
its joint hottest February day on record when temperatures in Marree reached
47.9C, equalling the record set at Tarcoola on 17 February 1992. 24

Feb 171962 An intense storm over
the North Sea centred just north of the Wadden Islands caused serious flooding
in northwest Germany, especially in the area close to Hamburg where around
300 people were killed.1994 South Dakota's coldest
night on record; lows drop to -50.0C at McIntosh. 92003 The worst snowstorm since
the infamous 1996 blizzard (when 80 were killed) affected northeast USA.
In Boston 69-70cms snow fell, the highest single storm accumulation of
snow here since records began in 1892. 61-62cms snow fell at Dulles Airport,
Washington DC (the fifth worst snowstorm on record here), 47-48cms snow
fell at Philadelphia and Central Park, New York had its fourth heaviest
snowfall on record with just over 50cms snow. Baltimore also recorded its
worst snowstorm on record with 71-72cms snow. The greatest amount of snow,
however, fell at Berkley Springs, West Virginia where 93-94cms snow fell.

Feb 181979 New York state's joint
coldest night on record; lows drop to -46.7C at Old Forge. 91996 Cuba's coldest night
on record; lows drop to 0.6C at Bainoa.

Feb 191884 60 tornadoes kill at
least 800 people in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
191998 Western Australia records
its hottest day on record when highs at Mardie reach 50.5C. It's also the
2nd hottest day on record in the whole of Australia. 13,
7

Feb 211971 58 people are killed
by a tornado in Pugh City, Mississippi. 192002 Thunderstorms over northern
Bolivia between the 19th and 21st February. La Paz gets its heaviest rain
in 50 years and with at least 69 killed in flooding, rain and hailstorms
it's the most destructive storm in the city's history. 2

Feb 222002 123mm rain falls in 24
hours at Hope, BC in Canada, the wettest February day on record there.
The old record was 105.7mm rain on 9th February 1951. Meanwhile, the average
February precipitation is 172mm here. The same storm dumped 71mm rain on
Victoria, 60mm of it in just 12 hours, and 68mm rain at West Vancouver.2004 A heatwave across Queensland
starting on 10 Feb led to a number of long-standing records being broken.
Brisbane airport recorded its hottest day on record when highs reached
40.2C, shattering the previous record of 35.8C set on 2 February 1958.
In the city of Brisbane itself highs reached 41.7C, the hottest February
day on record here. A number of other places across Queensland set record
February highs and record high maximum temperatures on the same day. 24

Feb 231802 A massive snowstorm affects
the New England coast dumping 122cm snow to an area north of Boston as
well as wrecking 3 large ships off Cape Cod. 71921 It snowed in Athens,
Greece. 23

Feb 241982 Malaysia's joint hottest
day on record; temperatures reach 38.4C in Chuping.1990 The Netherlands records
its hottest February day on record when highs reach 20.4C in Oost Maarland.2001 The USA's deadliest tornado
of 2001; 8 people are killed in Pontotoc, Mississippi. This tornado measured
F2 on the Fujita scale and was one of 17 tornadoes which affected Missouri,
Arkansas and Mississippi.

Feb 251921 Heavy snow reported in
Jerusalem. 23

Feb 261995 Between 22nd and 26th
Cyclone Bobby causing widespread flooding over the Western Australia coast
and dumping up to 300mm rain in some places. 7

Feb 272002 154mm rain falls in the
24 hours up to 12utc in Chillan, southern Chile. The average February precipitation
here is just 16mm.

Feb 281900 A massive snowstorm dumps
snow on an area extending from Kansas to New York. In some places it was
a record breaking snowstorm, for example 44cm at Springfield, Illinois,
109cm at Rochester, New York and up to 152cm in the Adirondack Mountains,
New York State. 71964 1,087mm rain falls in
9 hours at Belouve, La Reunion. By the time this storm eased off on the
29th, 1,689mm had fallen in just 18 and a half hours. 6

Feb 291952 5 tornadoes touched down
in the USA. Three of them touched down in Tennessee where 4 people were
killed and 166 injured at Marshall, Lincoln and Warren. The tornadoes measured
F2 or F3 on the Fujita Scale. 30